July 4 2016

Hey everyone! This week was so awesome. President Larson called together a quick meeting with half the mission on Thursday and the other half of the mission on Friday to have a cool little training about how to commit people to go to church. We talked a lot about giving specific promises and blessings as guided by the Holy Spirit. and I learned more about the calling we have and the authority we have to promise people things in the name of Christ. It was an awesome experience and we learned a lot about the blessings too. God literally promises us that if we keep the sabbath day holy, EVERY ASPECT of our lives will improve. Consequently if we do not keep the sabbath day holy, every aspect of our lives will get worse. All we have to do is trust in him, go to church, do other uplifting things on His day, and he promises to bless us and help us. How simple is that?

haha so on the way home from the meeting we were trying to catch a bus to get back home. and for those of you that havent been to Lima, to get on a bus you seriously have to be on your toes. The bus pulls up in the middle of crazy traffic, stops for like 10 seconds and a guy yells out the window the different bus stops that the bus goes to. He yelled 'Caja de Aqua!' which is our stop. I was with my companion and 2 other elders in my district. I got on first and paid the bus driver and started to make my way down the isle. when I got to a spot on the bus where there was a little more space and it was a litle more comfortable (cause the buses are seriously PACKED here too. The whole world can fit in a little bus here), I looked out the window and there I saw my companion and the 2 other Elderes. I was like what the heck! I motioned to them to get on the bus cause it was going to leave soon but one of them was buying some cookies from a street vender so they were taking a little too much time. They started making their way to the door to get on when BAM! the door closes and the bus lurches forward. I looked out the window and waved goodbye to my 3 companions. I was alone! After having a constant companion for 22 months here and always having someone to talk to and to be with, it was seriously the weirdest thing ever to be alone on the bus. It was a feeling that I didn't like at all. I immediatly called them and told them I would wait for them at our bus stop. I got there and like 15 minutes later they arrived too. When we saw each other we all laughed it off but wow it was such a weird experience. It was like an emptiness to be there alone without my companion. I think that it's a lot like how we feel when we distance ourselves from the Spirit. Maybe we don't pay too much attention and we do something that seems normal but really isn't okay. Like when I got on the bus and wasn't really aware that my companions hadn't gotten on behind me. When we aren't in harmony with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and spirit can't touch as strong, we are in a way distanced from God like I was on the bus. But there is a way to get back. Thanks to repentance and the love that Christ has for each one of us there is a way to get back. I had to wait at the bus stop for a while and honestly I was a little scared to be there alone without anyone at my side. We can repent and get back in touch with the spirit but it also takes time. And not only that but a broken heart and a contrite spirit. After that experience I will make sure every time I get on a bus that my companions are behind me. And in the same way, after a bad experience that distances us from the Spirit and after repenting and making things better, we are also more aware of the things that we do and we can be more careful. 

Well I'm running out of time. I know that the Atonement is real because I have seen it in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters here in Peru. This week a sister that we are visiting told us about some things that she has done in the past and she felt a little embarassed and wanted to be forgiven. She wasnt really sure if it was possible. I began to speak and then just stayed silent for a moment and the words were put into my mouth. I testified to the sister that Christ thought specifically of her and of each one of us while he was being tortured, whipped, spit on, beaten, and especially in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. I know he thought specifically of me and that he loves me so much. I love this gospel :) and I love being here helping people grow a better relationship with our Savior. The truth is that he is 100 percent aware of us. He watches over us everyday and he laughs when we laugh, and cries when we cry. Even though I have never seen Him, I love Him with all my heart and I have the most perfect assurance that one day I will see him with a perfect resurrected body and somehow try to express my gratitude to him for all he has done for me. I know these things are true. And that the only true happiness is available to us when we belong to the same church that Jesus Christ established in Jerusalem and then in the Americas. It's only possible through the saving ordinances that are available through the priesthood of God that was restored to Joseph Smith and that have been handed down in an unbroken line to the current living prophet of God Thomas S Monson. I love the church. I love the blessings that I can help people recieve and for the things that I learn everyday. En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.